head power down-feed not working

I had the same problem when resurrecting my old Bridgeport.

As I recall. a pin through the handwheel shaft had broken.

I bought a new replacement (roll pin) but it was too big or too long or something.

I ended turning a solid pin from a nail, as suggested on this or other forums.

Works fine now.
 
I rebuilt the feed worm shaft assembly last night, and ran into a problem. I had ordered a new worm shaft and clutch rod, as the old ones were too badly damaged to reuse. Once I got the assembly together, the clutch rod was very tight. I could just barely get it to move in and out, and it was requiring too much force to do this. At first I thought that I might have bent the roll pin when I reinserted it, so I drifted it out, and replaced it with a new one. Once it was back together, I still had the same problem. I decided to take the assembly back apart, and find out whats going on. When I looked at the clutch rod, I found out that the hole for the roll pin in new clutch rod was smaller than the roll pin hole in the original Bridgeport part. I checked to find out what diameter of index drill bit would pass through the hole on the OEM part. Then I drilled out the hole on the new clutch rod with a #37 index drill. After I did this, the feed worm shaft assembly went right together and works smoothly. The roll pin needs to be a close fit to the hole in the feed reverse clutch, but it only needs to pass through the clutch rod. I hope this information helps.
 
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